Royal Games: the Final Duel
by Halfling Rogue
Summary: Yet another tournament has swept up Yuugi & co in its wake, but doesn't look to be quite as normal. It seems Pegasus wasn't the one to bring DM to Japan. The stakes are higher than they'd thought. And Yami's past isn't all that he thought it was...


**

Royal Games: The Final Duel

  
Prologue**  
  
  
Disclaimers: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi. Who I can only pray won't decide to sue the hell out of me for what I've done to his characters.  
  
The trailer of this fic and its partner in the duology can be found here: www. fanfiction. net/ read. php? storyid=714894 (take out the spaces)  
  
**Name glossary (dub name -- Japanese name)**  
Joey Wheeler -- Katsuya Junouchi  
Tristan Taylor -- Hiroto Honda  
Téa Gardner -- Anzu Masaki  
Merrick Ishtar -- Malik Ishtar  
Ishizu Ishtar -- Isis Ishtar  
Duke Devlin -- Ryuji Otogi  
Mai Valentine -- Mai Kujaku  
  
**glossary**  
_hikari_ - light. As the spirits of the millennium items are referred to as _yami_, which means "dark" in Japanese, the holders of the items are often called _hikari_, as their opposites.  
  
  
  
*----------------------------*  
  
_And when you looked into my eyes felt a sudden sense of urgency  
Fascination casts a spell and you became more than just a mystery  
And I think about you all the time  
Is this fate is it my destiny  
That I think about you all the time_  
—Chained To You, Savage Garden  
  
~-------~  
  
  
**_S_**oft hands, delicate fingers.  
  
"Be with me, my lord."  
  
_Full breasts, slender throat._  
  
"I am yours, and no other's."  
  
_Shining pink lips, softly sloped face._  
  
"Take me as you wish. I am your servant. I exist only to serve you, the king of gods on earth."  
  
_Midnight hair so black that it shone blue. Jewel-like eyes that glittered like malachite in the darkness._  
  
"I am indentured to please you, through my own worship of your form. I am bound to follow you, wherever you may lead."  
  
_Hot breath against his neck. A curving smile against his ear._  
  
"But for now, let me lead you . . . into the highest pleasure of your mortal form."  
  
**THUMP!  
  
** _*Yami! Yami, are you all right?*_  
  
As Yuugi's worried call echoed through his head, Yami blinked and tried to wake up enough to determine where he was. By the time he realized that he was on the floor, in his soul room, the sheets and blankets of his bed twisted haphazardly around his legs, Yuugi had already descended into the puzzle and was knocking on his door.  
  
"Yami, are you okay? I just got this sudden jolt and then I thought I heard something fall. Are you all right? Can I come in?"  
  
Yami sighed and started working on the knot of sheets around his ankles. "Yes, Yuugi, you can come in."  
  
The door to his soul room clicked open and the younger form of his _hikari_, clad in baggy pajamas, wandered in with a poorly suppressed yawn. Yuugi blinked sleepily at his other half, still not fully awake himself. "Yami, what happened? Was it another nightmare?"  
  
"In a manner of speaking." Yami got his ankles undone and began working on freeing the rest of his legs. He was using the tangle as an obvious excuse to not look at his _hikari_, but if Yuugi noticed that his _yami_ was avoiding his eyes, he was polite enough not to mention it.  
  
"Well, as long as you're okay, then. What was that jolt, though? It woke me right up from the middle of my sleep."  
  
Yami stiffened for a moment, then forced his fingers to resume picking at the knot. "I'm not sure." No way was he going to tell young, innocent Yuugi that he'd just had an erotic dream strong enough to make most grown men wet their pants. The fact that the pleasure he'd felt had been strong enough to create a resonance in the puzzle was only more incentive to keep his mouth shut. "My . . . distress . . . must have created a small disturbance in the puzzle. I'm sorry for waking you."  
  
"Oh. You sure you don't want to talk about it? It sounds like it must have been pretty bad."  
  
"Yes! Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry about me."  
  
Yuugi gave him a skeptical look but dropped the subject. "Then I guess I should get back to bed. Good night, Yami."  
  
"Good night, Yuugi." He finally got the blasted sheets untangled just as the door clicked closed. With a heavy sigh, Yami sat on the edge of his bed and dropped his head in his hands.  
  
Three centuries. Three centuries since the last time he'd had that dream, the last time he'd seen her. During all those thousands of years he'd spent in the puzzle, drifting in a half-aware state between living and death, her vision had come to him a few times, the memory soft-edged and more of a feeling than an actual picture. He still didn't know her name, couldn't for the life of him remember where he'd seen her before, but the emotions that burned through him with her presence were unlike anything he'd ever experienced.  
  
He knew his past. He remembered it. He remembered his life as a pharaoh in Egypt's early kingdom, remembered the others and the roles they'd played. He knew every detail as if his memory had never been lost to begin with.  
  
So why couldn't he remember _her?_  
  
He'd scoured his memories for hours at a time after he'd regained them, searching them thoroughly for a vision of night-black hair and green eyes. She wasn't Isis, he knew that. They had the same colouring, but that was where the similarities ended. No, his dream-haunting visitor had come from somewhere else, somewhere outside the scope of his memories, both past and present.  
  
But who could live outside of restored memory . . . ?  
  
With another weighty sigh, Yami got to his feet and scooped up the rumpled sheets, snapping them back out over the bed. He could worry about his little visitor later. If he didn't get some sleep tonight, Yuugi would get worried again and ask questions in the morning. Questions that he would prefer not to have to avoid. The mystery could wait for another day.  
  
The once-pharaoh quickly lost himself to sleep, rest washing away his milling questions.  
  
But somewhere in the darkness, the answers weren't as ready to be dismissed.  
  
  
  



End file.
